Newsletter

The Monthly Leader serves as a monthly delivery of Coach It Out (CiO) insights on leadership development, intersecting both professional and personal development. This newsletter will provide a broad exposure to concepts and ideas through its various sections.

The work CiO does draws from all those conversations and experiences so The Monthly Leader is your go-to resource from which you can take and to which you can provide ideas, opinions, and reflections.

Having a true and deep understanding of relationships is key to delivering your best — both in them and through them. And that goes not only for your relationship with other individuals but with organizations, entities, and missions as well. How do you view your relationship with your organization? How much do you and your organization represent each other’s interests, goals, and priorities?

Nowadays, organizations are more representative of the workforce and its individual employees than most people may think or realize. For instance, through the accessibility the internet and social media have afforded…the world, more people are privy to what your organization stands for — and therefore, to some extent, what you stand for. You are a component of that organizational reputation.

If you work with others toward a common mission, it’s important to make sure everyone working toward that common purpose is getting better. That’s especially the case in the workplace. And that’s why this issue of The Monthly Leader covers employee development.

Employee development is key to success. It’s not enough to just bring someone on board with a great past and a deep resume, full of your desired experience. Beyond that hiring, what steps will leaders then take to make sure that new team member continues developing? The organization owes the employee just as much as the organization expects from the employee. Value creation and growth should not be a one-sided affair.

You can only be your best if you want it. Nothing can get done in life, leadership, or coaching without us being disciplined enough to do what we need to do.

Without self-discipline, each of us can read as much as we want, study as much as we want, and plan as much as we want, but nothing will get done. We need to be strict enough with ourselves to get the ball rolling toward what we want to achieve.

Knowledge is great, but insight is even better. Fortunately, in a mentorship, knowledge is shared with a heavy dose of insight — the mentor’s translation of that knowledge — and refinement to get to the most critical points of that topic, field, position, industry, etc.

Overall, the mentorship can save so much time, energy, and effort because a mentor can provide guidance which helps the mentee avoid a good amount of the trial, errors, and frustration of interpreting the knowledge on his or her own.

Most of our goals can only happen if we push through what life puts in our way. We must harness our energy, drive, and motivation to keep pushing and never settle. We have to find our grit.

Grit is key to development because it shows us what we really want. How — and how much — we fight for something demonstrates our grittiness. How often might we have said we wanted something, but then, for whatever reason, never followed through? We might have had the desire for something but not the commitment. How bad did we really want it, then? Consider your own experiences: Who are the grittiest people you know? They are usually the ones who write the story of their life; they don’t just read it or have it read to them. They get their hands dirty with hard work and new challenges.

A couple times of year The Monthly Leader will go back to leadership, back to basics, back to the core of what leadership is. All the previous issues are valuable as they outline how each topic plays into the construct of leadership. But, sometimes, it’s time to step back from the trees to see the forest and the overall landscape. It’s time to go back and assess your overall leadership ability.

What have you taken away from these past issues, which have covered dealing with fear, taking ownership, self-help, development, and management, among other topics? My hope is that you realize the lessons all contribute to a solid foundation for leadership, and that you use all those pieces to round out your ability.

Leadership vs. Management. People may see them very differently. Some people use them as interchangeable words, while to others they are separate disciplines which overlap at times. Everyone has their own definition of each.

For our purposes, though, let’s consider management as harnessing the systems in our environment and mind of our partners effectively, while leadership encourages their heart and passion. However you define them, you need to make sure both those driving forces are there — process and passion. It’s important to both help and encourage people, while guiding them to be as effective as possible. Are you doing that in whatever capacity it is you serve?

We have more power in our hands than we believe, to determine where it is we go and how. While last month’s theme of Self-Help urged each of us to stop and assess ourselves, so as to empower our own self-realization and self-understanding, this month’s theme of Development pushes our growth and advancement forward off of that foundation.

The Self-Help issue called on us to look inward to determine what we want and need for ourselves, in order to build a solid foundation. Only then can we look outward to take stock of what around us either helps or hinders us in that effort.

he phrase “self-help” has had a stigma attached to it for far too long. Traditionally, it’s been perceived as a marker of the weak, unsure, or insecure, but it should instead be considered a foundation for development, refinement, and growth.

Self-help is an important focus because, more often than not, we forget to help ourselves. We move through life in reactive mode to the world around us, delivering for others, performing for others, and coming through for others. But, in the course of that external approach, we tend to lose sight of ourselves.

Too much of what we haven’t accomplished is held hostage by fear. The majority of the time we haven’t achieved something, it’s due more to fear stopping us or holding us back than it is to inability or lack of resources.

The best thing to do with fear is face it. By facing it, one can begin to analyze it to break it down into manageable parts and sources. Instead, too often, we try to suppress it or delay dealing with it. Fear holds us back from too much in life.

As we each develop in our career, reputation, and life, we should all strive to continue expanding our leadership and development. It’s a process that should never end. And the sooner we begin, the sooner we can refine our approach.

We should also retain the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Everything from today and before will contribute to tomorrow and beyond. We can all be lifelong students with open minds and expanding curiosities.

2017

Moving forward is all about offense and defense, meaning, respectively, the skills we are going to utilize to move and push into our future, and the level of ability we have to hold off, and push back against, the challenges that await us. Resilience is part of that last portion – the defense. It’s what keeps us moving through, past, and over obstacles to get to what we want. Each of us has a different level of resilience based on our experiences, desires, and the goals we want for ourselves.

Leadership isn’t only about impacting those people immediately in front of you, but also about setting the stage for your entire environment to thrive, no matter your position or title.

How much of what you’re involved in do you own? We need to do as much as we can to ensure that those working toward our mission are as prepared as possible to meet all challenges and achieve all goals.

So, how do you improve your environment? How do you add value to what is around you? You don’t need to be an official leader to make any kind of positive difference.

There’s always an opportunity to help others build up their skills and refine their own value. There are opportunities at every turn to step outside of our own world and make a change in the world of others. That’s one of the foundational beliefs behind this month’s Monthly Check-In on Social Responsibility.

Watching the news may be disheartening, but all the negativity we see can be offset by the little things we can all do for each other through the course of our actions. We can make an impression on others and influence others by understanding who it is they are and what it is they might need. No one can benefit from a divided world.

Reaching out is not only meant to see how you can improve your position but also to demonstrate what you can provide – who you are and what your value is. You can refine your leadership through who you know. So, networking is the topic for your monthly check-in.

This is an interesting time to study leadership. Leadership around the world is moving at a rapid clip as evidenced by the rotating heads of state, shifting priorities, and reshuffling of partnerships.

The Monthly Leader serves as a monthly delivery of Coach It Out (CiO) insights on leadership development, intersecting both professional and personal development. This newsletter will provide a broad exposure to concepts and ideas through its various sections.

What examples have you seen of a temperamental, emotional #leader delivering great results?
If you did witness such a case, how was it the environment actually came to be successful?
#leadership#organization#boss#manager

Leadership Lesson: There can be no growth or development forward if you’re tolerating too much, unwisely using your precious resources, including energy and reputation, to hold things together or keep appearances.
#leadership#coaching#relationshipsow.ly/YwgW30pnARA

Some quotes can speak to us directly. If there are none that have spoken to you, or driven you to push forward, what advice received in your own experience has motivated you to push forward with everything you have?
#motivation#drive#success#coachingow.ly/lSp030mzXov

@VPsalesBD@AdamMGrant@seanmlandry It's important to define 1:1. They don't necessarily lead to micromanagement. The best ones I've seen are more, "What are you up to? What do you need? What's your plan going forward? Ok, after all that, here's what I can suggest. Let me know what you need before our next 1:1."

My top tip: Before you declare a major, go interview 5 people in the field you'd like to enter after graduation. The industry landscape will shift, but try to get a sense of what awaits you -- the good and the bad.
#college#careers#development#lifeow.ly/csLo30plqA5

Leadership Lesson: We need to understand what it is that keeps us repeating those behaviors, habits, and practices that keep us from our best development and goals.
Is it Fear? Complacency? Distraction? Tradition?
#fear#legacy#development#leadershipow.ly/ccRg50vnrgy

There IS a huge difference between shyness and introversion.
Most times, understanding the root of how you approach life, work, projects, and people, helps you work to harness it, refine it, to make it work for you.
#introversion#shyness#developmentow.ly/d7zC30kP0nv

What do you think? What have you seen? How much have you demonstrated when you've interviewed? Where is that sweet spot between This is who I am and This is what I can do for you?
Resume alone is not enough.
#interview#hiring#coaching#successow.ly/FrGi30pfvn9